东莞制造业衰退折射中国经济转型阵痛

choi

Neil Gough, 东莞制造业衰退折射中国经济转型阵痛. 纽约时报中文网, Jan 20, 2016
http://cn.nytimes.com/business/20160120/c20chinaecon/

, which is translated from

Neil Gough, China's Fading Factories; Workshops that produced export goods like shoes and furniture are struggling. New York Times, Jan 20, 2016.
http://cn.nytimes.com/business/20160120/c20chinaecon/

Excerpt in the window of print: As wages rise, cheaper production bases in Asia have gained ground.

Quote:

(a) "the world’s workshop [ie, China] has been stumbling as cheaper production bases in Asia have gained ground. Last year, Chinese exports fell for the first time since the financial crisis — and for only the second time since the country’s economy began reopening to the outside world in the late 1970s.

(b) "While there are still many active factories in Dongguan, the main ones succeeding are increasingly high-tech and less reliant on large staffs.

"After working 15 years at an automotive plant in Alabama, Michael Recha moved to Dongguan in 2012 to set up a specialized factory for car parts, one of the first of its kind in China. Owned by Gestamp, a Spanish automotive component maker, the factory uses a technology called hot stamping to form metal sheets into precision parts like car bumpers and body panels for both local and foreign carmakers.

"But robots do an increasing share of the work. The factory employs just 400 workers working two shifts a day.

" 'China is no longer a low-cost country, so we have the same robots and equipment here' as in Europe, Mr Recha said.

My comment:
(a) This report is like most news reports dispatched from or about China: there is no statistics, which is either non-existent or not reliable; just anecdotes. I wonder whether Chinese Communist party knows better -- or the party central is also deceived by the provinces.
(b) There is no need to read the rest.